Baseball

Titans Come Up Short vs. Sun Devils

Fullerton, Calif. -
Xorge Carrillo's eighth inning double into the left field corner scored Zach Wilson from first with what would figure to be the winning run as Arizona State defeated Cal State Fullerton, 6-5, Tuesday night at Goodwin Field in the first of two games in the DeMarini West Coast Challenge.

The Titans see their modest three-game winning streak come to an end and fall to 7-8 on the year. The Sun Devils remain perfect with the win and improve to 16-0.

Mitchell Lambson (2-0) was the beneficiary of the three-run ASU fifth inning that gave the Sun Devils the lead for good. Up until the top of the fifth, the Titans had control with a 4-2 lead, scoring all four runs off starter Brady Rogers on seven hits..

Nick Ramirez, making his first career start, fell to 0-2 and was charged with five runs over 4.1 innings of work. Dylan Floro worked the final 4.2 innings surrendering just a run on six hits.

The Titans made a charge at tying the game in the bottom of the ninth after closer Jordan Swagerty walked leadoff man Austin Kingsolver. With Kingsolver running, Christian Colon popped out on the first pitch of his at bat for the first out of the inning. Gary Brown was then called out for batter's interference with Kingsolver running again. Kingsolver had the base stolen, and would have moved to third as Devils' catcher Carrillo launched his throw into left center field. With two down, Kingsolver ran for a third time, making it successfully, but Carlos Lopez grounded to second for the final out of the game. Swagerty earned his fifth save of the year.

The Titans got on the board early, scoring two times in the second. Ramirez, hitting for himself, led off the inning with a single and then went to third on a Corey Jones double (off the first base umpire Larry Randall). Catcher Billy Marcoe then reached on a fielder's choice that retired Ramirez at the plate for the first out of the inning. Tyler Pill's single up the middle scored Jones to make it 1-0, and then Rogers, on a fake-to-third-throw-to-first attempt, balked home the second run of the game.

Ramirez gave up a single to ASU's Andrew Aplin and walked Deven Marrero to begin the top of the third. Both were sacrificed up 90 feet, and Aplin later scored on Zach MacPhee's single through the left side, cutting the Titan lead to 2-1.

Fullerton got the run back in their half of the third with Carlos Lopez belting his second home run of the year off Rogers following two long fly outs by Colon and Brown. The Titans also added another in the fourth on doubles by Pill and Kingsolver.

A sacrifice fly brought home ASU's second run in the fourth, but the damage was done in the fifth as they scored three times to take the lead. Back-to-back singles by Marrero and Drew Maggi got the Sun Devils in business to lead things off. MacPhee hit into a force out at third to retire Marrero, but right fielder Kole Calhoun singled to center and went to second on Brown's throw to third to set up Riccio Torrez's big hit. Torrez, facing the new Titan arm, greeted Floro with a single that scored both base runners to give Arizona State the 5-4 lead.

In the eighth, ASU extended to 6-4 on Carrillo's double - getting some help from the Goodwin Field wall. Wilson, aboard on a single, would likely have not scored had the ball taken a regular carom towards the left fielder Kingsolver. But instead, the ball took an irregular bounce back towards center field, allowing Wilson to come all the way around uncontested from first.

Fullerton chipped away in the bottom of the eight, getting a pair of hits and a sac-fly from Tyler Pill, but it wasn't enough.

Two-way players Pill (two hits) and Ramirez (3 hits) led the way offensively for the Titans. Maggi, Torrez, Wilson and Aplin each had two hits in the ASU 13-hit attack. Brown's 14-game hitting streak came to an end with an 0-for-5 night. Lopez now leads the team with a nine-game streak with his home run.

The two teams will face off again tomorrow night with Pill toeing the rubber for the Titans. First pitch is at 6 p.m.